1.
A Thread of Violence: A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder, by Mark O’Connell
True crime gets the literary treatment in this gripping, excellently crafted account of one of modern Ireland’s biggest scandals. Strapped for cash, a well-known Dublin socialite robs a bank and kills two innocent civilians in the process. He does jail time, gets out, and tells the author Mark O’Connell his side of the story. (O’Connell takes it with a hefty grain of salt.) Malcolm Mackay, the crime novelist behind the Glasgow Trilogy, reviews A Thread of Violence here.
2.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, by David Grann
Few nonfiction writers can spin a narrative as well as David Grann, whether it be the quest for a fabled place (The Lost City of Z) or unearthing gross injustices against oil-rich Native Americans in the 1920s (Killers of the Flower Moon). His latest book, The Wager, takes place in the 1700s and melds a mutiny-and-shipwreck tale with a courtroom saga that is nothing less than riveting. (And, as with Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have already bought the film rights.) You can read Jim Kelly’s interview with Grann about The Wager here.
